Top 5 Tuesday (33)

I am very much aware that I am about to post this on a Thursday. However, if you’ll bare with me, I’ll explain.

After missing 4 weeks of T5T I decided during my second week of absence to treat it as an experiment. The experiment would prove (or disprove) that T5T affected my mood. I did notice in the 4 weeks of not doing a T5T post, my life was a little more stressed, and I was a little bit sadder than usual. While it did not cause me to go into a depression of any kind, I could tell there was a difference in my attitude. I wasn’t acknowledging the good things that had happened to me in the past week enough, which had caused a lot of awesome things to go unnoticed; which resulted in me being in a not so great mood.

I also came to the conclusion that being committed to something like blog updates every 7 days was harder than I had originally planned. I think that means I might turn it down a notch and do one every 2 weeks.

With all of that being said, I think it’s time for a T5T.

1    1. I have gotten to spend a lot of time with my parents the past few weeks. They had to come to Birmingham for some doctor appointments for my mom. I’m pretty sure that they came up here 3 weeks in a row for just one night. As hard as I’m sure it was on my parents, I’m not going to lie and say I wish they wouldn’t have had to come. I really enjoyed coming home from work to them in my apartment. They always make me happier just by being around.

2    2. Upward Basketball came to a close last Saturday. It’s been a fairly good year with only a couple of issues. As much as I enjoy basketball, I’m really not sad to see it go. One reason is because I know it’ll be back before I know it, and another reason is because I’m going to get about 3 Saturdays IN A ROW off. That almost never happens, so I’m pretty excited!

3    3. Speaking of taking 3 weekends in a row off, all of them will include seeing friends that I feel like I haven’t seen in years. That also means that I’ll be getting out of Birmingham. I sincerely love it here, but getting out of town every now and then really makes a difference.

4    4. In April I will have the privilege of going on the girls retreat with the VHUMC youth group. I honestly can’t explain my excitement. I’ve become friends with the Youth Directors and I am genuinely looking forward to this. More to come on this later.

5    5. Number 5 is the most important part of this T5T post. If I weren’t able to post this, things would be drastically different for me. My mother had a very serious surgery Monday morning. My sisters and I arrived at the hospital at 6:30 AM (my parents arrived an hour and a half earlier). For the next 5 hours we waited. Around 11:20 AM we received word that her surgery had started. Then we waited a little more. Around 12:45 or 1:00 PM we were told she made it out of surgery and Dr. C. was able to get the tumor. Excitement (as well as a sigh of relief) took over. Even though we had so many people praying and a really great doctor, we really weren’t sure how this one was going to turn out. Goes to show you that even when you doubt God, He’s in control. It is all His. Everything. We finally got to see her around 5:30 PM. She was still really out of it, but it was so good to see her. By the next day when I went to see her (around 12:00 PM) she was eating a grilled cheese and had already taken a lap around her floor. Hopefully, she’ll be going home tomorrow (Thursday).

My mom is the strongest person I know. I hope in the years to come I will gain her strength. She never ceases to amaze me. Her faith in God, her love for her family and friends, and her genuine kindness leave me in awe. I love her more than words can express. My dad ranks right up there with her. His love for my mother reminds me that true love still exists. He wouldn’t know what to do without her, and she wouldn’t know what to do without him. He worries when people he loves are experiencing any kind of pain. He cares about people, and I know for a fact that he has done many random acts of kindness that I’m not even aware of. I honestly could not have better parents. I am blessed beyond words.